The video, published by National Geographic, provides an insight into working and living conditions in one of the world’s largest ship recycling yards. Bangladeshi shipbreaking has been strongly criticized by global NGOs for many years, with marine pollution, hazardous waste dumping and unsafe working conditions, as well as the illegal exploitation of child workers, being among the key areas of concern.
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Shipbreaking is considered as one of the world’s most dangerous jobs. Men desperate for work demolish huge ships in grueling conditions, braving disease, pollution, and the threat of being crushed or stabbed by steel sliced from the hulls.
Despite global reach of the problem, conditions do not show any improvement. In 2017, NGO Shipbreaking Platform documented the stories of at least 15 workers who were killed and at least 22 who suffered severe injuries, due to suffocation, fires, falls from great height or workers crushed by falling parts of the ship.
